Uber dealt a new setback in lawsuit

San Francisco-based Uber must turn over documents that a judge said show it instructed an investigator to lie to gain information about a plaintiff.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff ordered the ride-hailing service on Tuesday to hand over any documents that he said show it fraudulently sought information about Spencer Meyer, the lead plaintiff in the case, or his attorney.

The December antitrust lawsuit alleges that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was involved in price-fixing with the company's drivers. Uber had argued that the documents in question were privileged, but Roskoff rejected that assertion in his order.

The possible class-action lawsuit does not name Uber, but it does name Kalanick, which has prompted Uber to attempt to join the lawsuit. Roskoff wrote in a court filing that the documents that must now be turned over show a clear pattern of Uber investigators using false pretenses to obtain information about Meyer.